<Lighting System of Elevator>
Conventionally, a general fluorescent lamp (hot cathode-ray tube) for home use has been used for a lighting system installed on the ceiling of an elevator. This fluorescent lamp has characteristics that a life is shortened by repeated turning ON/OFF of the lighting system. It is because an excessive current is necessary at the starting time of the fluorescent lamp, and this excessive current damages a cathode.
Therefore, the fluorescent lamp starts to go off or flicker, which necessitates replacement.
When replacement is necessary, a maintenance engineer goes to the elevator, stops the elevator for a predetermined time to carry out maintenance work, and replaces the fluorescent lamp from the outside of the ceiling of the cage of the elevator. Incidentally, a life of the fluorescent lamp is about 6000 hours.
During such maintenance work, the entire elevator must be stopped, and it is very inconvenient for elevator users because the elevator cannot be used.
From the standpoint of safety, the maintenance engineer must carry out the maintenance work, and much time and labor are required even for only the replacement of the fluorescent lamp.
In the conventional hot-cathode fluorescent lamp, use of a starter generates a time lag between voltage application and lamp lighting. Thus, in order to prevent such a time lag, control is executed to open a front door a little while after the elevator moves to a floor from which it receives a call or the like.
As the lighting system, there is a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp as a compact fluorescent lamp used for a backlight of a personal computer or the like.
<Hall Lantern of Elevator>
Next, a conventional hall lantern of an elevator will be described.
FIG. 48 shows a landing hall of the elevator, a three-way frame 103 which comprises an elevator entrance 102 is installed on a wall body 101 of the landing hall, and a door device 104 is disposed on the entrance 102 to open/close the same. Then, for example, a hall lantern 105 is disposed on the upper side of the wall body 101 of the landing hall to be adjacent to the side of the three-way frame 103.
FIG. 49 is a sectional view of the hall lantern 105 cut along the line A-A of FIG. 48. This hall lantern 105 comprises a box 109 attached through a bracket 108 to the backside of the wall body 101. The box 109 is made of a metal such as a steel plate, and formed in a box shape having an opening 109a on one side face.
The box 109 is attached so that the opening 109a can be opposed to a through-hole 101a formed in the wall body 101. In the box 109, a phosphor 111 constituted of an incandescent lamp is disposed through a socket 110.
An illuminant 115 and a face plate 116 which are exposed to the landing hall are attached through a spring member 117 to the surface of the wall body 101 oppositely to the through-hole 101a. The illuminant 15 is made of a translucent synthetic resin such as an acrylic resin, and the face plate 116 is made of a stainless metal or the like. The face plate 116 is fitted to the outer periphery of the illuminant 115.
The spring member 117 is fixed to the face plate 116 by soldering or the like, inserted into the box 109, and press-fitted to the inner wall surface thereof. By this press-fitting force, the illuminant 115 and the face plate 116 are fixed to the surface of the wall body 101.
Before the elevator car arrives at the landing hall, the hall lantern 105 receives a signal from an elevator control panel (not shown) to emit a light from the phosphor 111, illuminates the illuminant 115 by the light, and notifies information thereof to passengers who wait for the arrival of the car at the landing hall.
However, in such a conventional hall lantern 105, the incandescent lamp is used as the phosphor 111. Consequently, its outside dimension is large, and the box 109 which houses the phosphor 111 is also large.
Since the phosphor 111 is an incandescent lamp, a large amount of heat is generated during its lighting, and luminance is high. Thus, a sufficiently large distance must be secured between the illuminant 115 and the phosphor 111 in order to prevent deformation or melting of the illuminant 115 caused by the heat or generation of an uneven light at the illuminant 115. The box 109 which houses the phosphor 111 must inevitably be enlarged, and it is difficult to make the box 109 compact and thin.
Therefore, when the box 109 is attached to the backside of the wall body 101, a beam structure of a building must be planned and designed minutely in detail in order to prevent mechanical interferences between a beam material (not shown) of the building at the backside and the box 109. Consequently, much time and labor are required.
In recent years, a tendency has been strengthened to desire white as an illumination color of the hall lantern 105. In this case, as the phosphor 111, use of a general white fluorescent lamp may normally be considered.
However, the general fluorescent lamp cannot be lit immediately because irregular flickering occurs during lighting. Generally, the hall lantern 105 notifies information to the passengers who wait for the arrival of the car at the landing hall by light flickering. Thus, in the general fluorescent lamp which irregularly flickers during lighting, it is impossible to employ a form of displaying information by regular flickering. This lamp cannot therefore be used as a phosphor of the hall lantern 105.
<Elevator Threshold>
In general elevator facilities, as shown in FIG. 50A, a hoist 1043 operated by a control panel 1042 is disposed on the uppermost portion of a hoistway 1041 which penetrates a plurality of floors of a building. Inside the hoistway 1041, a cage 1045 attached to a main rope 1044 which is suspended from the hoist 1043 to move, and a counter weight 1046 are disposed. By operating a call button disposed at each of floor landings 1047a to 1047d, or a destination floor specification button disposed in the cage 1045, the hoist 1043 is run and actuated through the control panel 1042 to transport passengers in the cage to upper and lower floors.
In such running of the elevator, as shown in FIG. 50B, there is a gap 1058 between a car threshold 1054 which is disposed at a car floor 1051 of the cage 1045 and which has a car groove 1053 to guide a car door 1052, and a landing threshold 1056 which is disposed at a landing 1047 and which has a landing groove 1057 to guide a landing door 1055, and a running state is changed by an increase/decrease in the number of passengers entering the cage or the number of floors to which the car moves during one traveling. Thus, the car threshold 1054 may be shifted from the landing threshold 1056 to cause landing of the cage 104 in a step generated state.
When the passengers enter/go out of the cage 1045, crutches, umbrella ferrules, high heels of shoes, etc., may get stuck in the gap 1058 between the car threshold 1054 and the landing threshold 1046, or the passengers may stumble on the step. Thus, there is a method for warning the passengers by illumination between the car threshold and the landing threshold.
Conventional light sources 1059a, 1059b for illumination between the car threshold and the landing threshold have been provided by arranging general fluorescent lamps, incandescent lamps or an array thereof.
In the conventional case of the general fluorescent lamp which is disposed to cause the passengers to recognize the gap or the generated step between the car threshold and the landing threshold by illumination between the car threshold and the landing threshold, a diameter of even a standard product is large, i.e., 34 mm, and remodeling and construction of car floor and landing floors become large in scale. In the general fluorescent lamp, an average life is short, i.e., 6000 hours, and not only maintenance and replacement require time and labor but also safety measures cannot be taken for the passengers when the lamp is unlit. Thus, there is a need to secure a maintenance system.
Furthermore, in the illumination by the array of incandescent lamps, the illumination is provided by the light sources arranged at random, and design is inferior. Thus, there is a problem in adoption.
<Lighting System in Elevator Car>
Next, description will be made of a conventional lighting system in an elevator car.
In the elevator, as shown in FIG. 51, an elevator car 1152 is arranged to be vertically moved in a hoistway 1151. This elevator car 1152 comprises a car floor 1153, a side plate 1154, a top plate 1155, a front door 1156, an end rail 1157 arranged between the upper portion of the front door 1156 and the top plate 1155, and a base 1158 attached between the car floor 1153 and the side plate 1154.
The elevator car 1152 is supported by an upright frame 1159 which is attached nearly in the center longitudinal direction of both side plates 1154 corresponding to left and right surface sides of the front door 56 side, a lower beam 1160 which is horizontally laid between the lower ends of both upright frames 1159, and an upper beam 1161 which is horizontally laid between the upper ends of both upright frames 1159, and suspended by a rope 1162.
In the elevator car 1152, a lighting system 1163 is attached to the top plate 1155 or the like in order to illuminate the inside of the elevator car. As shown in FIG. 52, the lighting system 1163 comprises a fluorescent lamp (hot cathode-ray tube) 1164 for general home use, a lamp box 1165 disposed to surround the fluorescent lamp 1164 except in a light irradiation direction, and an illumination plate 1166 arranged on the light irradiation direction side to transmit a light.
Incidentally, the aforementioned lighting system 1163 is generally attached to the top plate 1155. However, from the standpoint of securing various illumination effects, attaching of the lighting system to places other than the top plate 1155 in the elevator car is requested. In this case, however, the following problems arise.    (1) The fluorescent lamp (hot cathode-ray tube) 1164 for general home use becomes large overall including a stabilizer to light the fluorescent lamp 1164 because not only the fluorescent lamp itself is large but also an excessive current is necessary at the starting time of the fluorescent lamp. As a result, space of about 120 mm or higher is necessary in a depth direction of the lighting system 1163. However, when it is attached to a place other than the top plate 1155 as described above, e.g., to the side plate 1154 on the elevator backside, the attachment of the lighting system 1163 may be impossible if a gap W between the backside side plate 1154 and a wall of the hoistway 1151 is 120 mm or lower. An influence is large especially when the installed elevator car is renewed.    (2) The fluorescent lamp 1164 has characteristics that a life is shortened each time the lighting system 1163 is repeatedly turned ON/OFF. It is because the excessive current is necessary at the starting time of the fluorescent lamp as described above, and the excessive current damages a cathode. As a result, the fluorescent lamp 1164 for general home use is burned out about once every year. Each time, the maintenance engineer goes to the elevator, stops the elevator for a predetermined time to carry out maintenance work, and replaces the fluorescent lamp 1164.
Normally, however, when the lighting system 1163 is attached to the place other than the top plate 1155, since no maintenance space is secured, and replacement work of the fluorescent lamp 1164 takes a long time, the elevator must be stopped for a long time.    (3) For the lighting system, the cold-cathode fluorescent lamp is used as a compact fluorescent lamp for the backlight of a personal computer or the like. However, its attachment to the elevator car has not been devised yet.
Therefore, as described above, in the lighting system 1163 which uses the fluorescent lamp 1164, if it is attached to the place other than the top plate 1155 in the elevator car, the attachment may be impossible because of insufficient space. Even if it is attached, since maintenance space cannot be secured, the replacement work of the fluorescent lamp 1164 becomes difficult, which causes inconvenience that the elevator is stopped for a long time.
<Car Exterior Lighting System of Elevator>
Next, a conventional car exterior lighting system will be described.
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 53, the car exterior lighting system of the elevator is constituted in such a manner that on an exterior panel 1253 outside a cage 1252 to which an observation window glass 1251 is attached, a box-shaped illumination casing 1256 in which an incandescent lamp or a fluorescent lamp (hot cathode-ray tube) 1254 is incorporated to become a light source inside, and an acrylic plate 1255 is arranged on a surface side to become a light emission section to transmit a light is disposed, and the fluorescent lamp 1254 or the like is lit to illuminate the outside through the acrylic plate 1255. A reference numeral 1257 denotes a hoistway pit, 1257 a landing floor, 1259 a hall door, 1260 a car door, 1261 a cage inner wall, 1262 a compensation rope, 1263 a compensation rope tension pulley, and 1264 a buffer.
Thus, the aforementioned car exterior light system generally carries out exterior illumination of the cage 1252 by almost exclusively using the incandescent lamp or the fluorescent lamp 1254 for general home use.
However, in the incandescent lamp or the fluorescent lamp 1254 for general home use, because of a large outside dimension and a large amount of generated heat, and from the standpoint of removing an uneven light transmitted through the acrylic plate 1255 or the like, a large distance must be set from the fluorescent lamp 1254 to the acrylic plat 1255 of the surface. Consequently, a depth dimension of the box-shaped illumination casing 1256 becomes large.
As a result, the outside dimension of the exterior panel 1253 becomes large, creating a possibility of interferences with the devices such as the compensation rope tension pulley 1263 in the hoistway pit. This may necessitate a change in device layout or design of the exterior panel 1253. The incandescent lamp or the fluorescent lamp 1254 for general home use has characteristics that a life is shortened each time it is repeatedly turned ON/OFF. It is because an excessive current is necessary at the starting time of the fluorescent lamp, and the excessive current damages a cathode. As a result, the fluorescent lamp for general home use is burned out about once every year. Each time, the maintenance engineer must go to the elevator installed site, and stop the elevator to carry out maintenance work. In the case of a long dimension in the pit height direction or in the case of a hoistway of no work footholds, time for stetting up a foothold or the like is necessary. If the number of elevators to be installed is large, replacement work must be frequently carried out.
Therefore, in the aforementioned car exterior lighting system of the elevator, because of the use of the incandescent lamp or the fluorescent lamp 1254 for general home use, a depth dimension of the box-shaped illumination casing 1256 becomes large, and thus a change must be made in device layout or design of the exterior panel 1253. Additionally, because of frequent replacement work of the lamp, maintenance costs become high, and running of the elevator must be stopped for each replacement work.
<Lighting System of Elevator Cage>
Next, description will be made of a conventional lighting system of an elevator cage.
In the elevator, the elevator cage is vertically moved through a suspended rope by a hoist disposed in a machine room of the hoistway upper portion. A user can move to a floor specified from the cage by depressing a call registration button of a previous floor in the cage or a call registration button of each floor landing to register a call.
In the elevator cage, a lighting system is generally disposed on a ceiling portion, and the inside of the cage is illuminated by the lighting system to secure safety and convenience. For this lighting system, a commercially available fluorescent lamp used at general home and facilities is used. However, because of a short life of the fluorescent lamp, replacement work must be frequently carried out.
Thus, in place of the fluorescent lamp, a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp of a small tube diameter of about 1 mm to 6 mm and long-life characteristics may be used as a light source of the lighting system.
The cold-cathode fluorescent lamp is used as a backlight of a liquid crystal device. However, as it is originally constituted to surface-illuminate a screen through an optical waveguide, even if it is directly used, an irradiation angle of the cold-cathode fluorescent lamp is small, and an uneven light is generated on the illumination plate surface.
<Blackout Lamp Device of Elevator>
Next, description will be made of a conventional blackout lamp device of an elevator.
Generally, in the elevator, a blackout lamp device is disposed to illuminate the inside of a cage by lighting at the time of a blackout. This blackout lamp device comprises a blackout lamp disposed on a ceiling section of the cage, and a blackout detector which detects the occurrence of a blackout and lights the blackout lamp by using a secondary battery at the time of the detection.
Brightness of the blackout lamp is stipulated by the law. Conventionally, however, since the blackout lamp is disposed on the ceiling portion of the cage, illuminance becomes short especially at the floor surface portion of the cage, i.e., at the foot portion of a passenger. At the time of a blackout, the foot portion is dark, and the passenger feels uneasier.
Furthermore, an operation panel is disposed in a part of the side face in the cage, and an interphone button operated in emergency is disposed together with a destination floor registration button and a door opening/closing button on the operation panel. Thus, illuminance for the operation panel also becomes short, and a position of the operation panel and a content of the button are difficult to be determined, which only confuses the passenger.